Zulfadli Zulkifli tames Momota Kento to surge into final of Badminton Asia Youth U-19 Championships
Malaysia’s Zulfadli Zulkifli powered his way into the Boy’s Singles final after getting rid of Japan’s Momota Kento in the semi-final showdown of the 2011 Badminton Asia Youth U-19 Championships, in India, on Friday, July 8.
The second seed, Zulfadli, took 42 minutes to overwhelm the spirited Japanese, in a two-set match.
In the first game of this important match, Zulfadli started to attack right from the starting points and managed a five-point lead in a flash. However, Momota increased his speed and levelled the score by reaching at 7-7. Both shuttlers were playing aggressive
badminton and missed no opportunity of earning points by hitting powerful jump smashes.
Zulfadli started to build a good gap by playing a perfect game and reached at 16-10. At this stage, he became a little slow which helped the Japanese to reduce the difference by reaching at 18-19. The Malaysian again accelerated his speed at the net and
earned the remaining points by hitting powerful smashes on the side lines of the court and won the set by a 21-18 margin, in 18 minutes.
The second set of this semi-final fight was the most thrilling fight of the day, where both shuttlers remained neck-to-neck throughout the game. Momota was dominating play at the net, whereas, Zulfadli was playing good from the rear court area as his powerful
smashes earned him many points.
The Japanese started to play better at the net by executing spinning net strokes and tried his best to keep the shuttle c**k as low as possible. However, in the concluding points of the second game, Zulfadli was successful in putting pressure on his challenger
by playing fast badminton.
The Malaysian managed to play some fascinating strokes at the net and won the game by a 21-19 difference, in 24 minutes. Zulfadli finished off the semi-final battle in straight games of 42 minutes, with the score of 21-18 and 21-19.
In the Boy’s Singles final battle, Zulfadli will fight either against China’s Liu Kai or India’s Verma Sameer.
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